IBM Boosts Social Network With Feed for Facebook, Twitter

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines
Corp., the largest computer services provider, has bolstered its
social networking tool for companies by integrating e-mail and
adding a news feed with Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc.

The enhanced product, called Connections, enables streaming
from social networks alongside business capabilities, such as
document authorization, reporting expenses and reviewing e-mails, IBM said in a statement today. The Armonk, New York-based
company is also adding more tools to the mobile version of the
service, including location tracking, said Alistair Rennie,
general manager of social business.

“You need to have a platform that is really social,
powered by very deep analytics and ready to integrate business
information into the stream in real time,” Rennie said in a
telephone interview. “It’s an area we’re fairly serious about
investing in.”

IBM is betting the enhanced service, which features
analytical tools, will gain customers in the face of increasing
competition from companies including Salesforce.com Inc. and
Microsoft Corp., which in July bought Yammer Inc., a Facebook-like corporate networking tool. Social network services will
help IBM make $16 billion from business analytics by 2015, the
company has said.

Connections will also integrate tools IBM gained through
acquisitions, tying in capabilities from Kenexa Corp., a maker
of Web-based human-resources and recruiting services, which it
is buying for about $1.3 billion.

IBM’s service, which debuted in 2007, now counts Primerica
Inc., the life insurer formerly owned by Citigroup Inc.,
Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Bayer AG among its users. Connections
works for both internal communication and for interacting with
customers, Rennie said.

IBM is opening offices in Manila and Sao Paolo to support
customers in emerging markets using social network tools, the
company also said today.